Presenting a mock 23-24 calendar based on DCUM's preference for 5-day weeks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why Yom Kippur but not the other religious holidays?

The other religious holidays are on the weekend during the 2023/2024 school year. I believe the school board wants to keep these 5 days off:
Rosh Hashanah
Yom Kippur
Diwali
Christmas
Eid

Hopefully there is less drama with making the calendar.

Except spring break/Good Friday/Easter issues.

Spring break needs to coordinate with all the other northern Virginia districts, whether it includes Easter or not.

Having it on its own special week not coinciding with any of the surrounding districts was a nightmare for teachers and resulted in lots of subs the weel all the other districts had their spring break, so a wasted week for students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why Yom Kippur but not the other religious holidays?

The other religious holidays are on the weekend during the 2023/2024 school year. I believe the school board wants to keep these 5 days off:
Rosh Hashanah
Yom Kippur
Diwali
Christmas
Eid

Hopefully there is less drama with making the calendar.

Except spring break/Good Friday/Easter issues.

Spring break needs to coordinate with all the other northern Virginia districts, whether it includes Easter or not.

Having it on its own special week not coinciding with any of the surrounding districts was a nightmare for teachers and resulted in lots of subs the weel all the other districts had their spring break, so a wasted week for students.

I disagree. It wasn't a nightmare for many people. Inconvenient, yes. But so are lots of other factors.

[Anonymous]

I’d love to see a calendar where we aren’t in school for weeks after SOLs and end of year exams and where 4 day school weeks are a rarity not the norm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’d love to see a calendar where we aren’t in school for weeks after SOLs and end of year exams and where 4 day school weeks are a rarity not the norm.

Then the SOLs need to be moved back in the school year. The school Districts cannot help when the State plans those exams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’d love to see a calendar where we aren’t in school for weeks after SOLs and end of year exams and where 4 day school weeks are a rarity not the norm.

We need to have several weeks after SOLs to allow time for retakes. End of year exams are always the last week of school for high school.

[Anonymous]

SOLs are complete in May (including retakes). We are in school till mid June.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:SOLs are complete in May (including retakes). We are in school till mid June.

Sure. I would be happy with an early August start and a beginning of June stop.
But also, consider some of the seniors who need to pass an SOL to graduate; they graduate at the beginning of June about 2 weeks before the end of school for everyone else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I say we keep the current calendar AND take every Monday off for a teacher work day. Working parents will just have to figure something out. The teachers really need more time for in-service meetings and to grade papers. Everyone else is moving to a 4-day work week, why not FCPS?

I don't know anyone moving to a 4-day work week. No-school Mondays would make my life as a two-parent full-time household with young elementary schoolers very difficult.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SOLs are complete in May (including retakes). We are in school till mid June.

Sure. I would be happy with an early August start and a beginning of June stop.
But also, consider some of the seniors who need to pass an SOL to graduate; they graduate at the beginning of June about 2 weeks before the end of school for everyone else.

How about we stop taking so many random days off during the school year. The reason we go so late and because of VA law for having 180 days. You all need to care that a good 14 of those days don't teach your kids anything. They're just there to satisfy this law.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SOLs are complete in May (including retakes). We are in school till mid June.

Sure. I would be happy with an early August start and a beginning of June stop.
But also, consider some of the seniors who need to pass an SOL to graduate; they graduate at the beginning of June about 2 weeks before the end of school for everyone else.

How about we stop taking so many random days off during the school year. The reason we go so late and because of VA law for having 180 days. You all need to care that a good 14 of those days don't teach your kids anything. They're just there to satisfy this law.

But I (and many others) do not want a 3 month summer. Personally, I would prefer a fall break, a Thanksgiving break, a winter break, a spring break, and an 8 week summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SOLs are complete in May (including retakes). We are in school till mid June.

Sure. I would be happy with an early August start and a beginning of June stop.
But also, consider some of the seniors who need to pass an SOL to graduate; they graduate at the beginning of June about 2 weeks before the end of school for everyone else.

How about we stop taking so many random days off during the school year. The reason we go so late and because of VA law for having 180 days. You all need to care that a good 14 of those days don't teach your kids anything. They're just there to satisfy this law.

But I (and many others) do not want a 3 month summer. Personally, I would prefer a fall break, a Thanksgiving break, a winter break, a spring break, and an 8 week summer.

I would prefer year round school with a 2 week break at the end of each quarter. I don't think the fall needs a fall break leading into a Thanksgiving break (I am assuming you mean more then the 2 days off right now) leading into winter break 5 weeks after Thanksgiving.

My ideal would be to build a calendar were you have 2 weeks off after the end of quarters and the second quarter ending at winter break. But most people seem to think that the idea of a shorter summer break in favor of a series of 2 weeks breaks is somehow threatening because they have to have a long summer break. (shrugs)

I think FCPS would be fine with the calendar if they choose either Federal Holidays off or Religious/Diversity days off but not both.

[Anonymous]

Summer break should be shorter, not longer. That's what's best for students. Having a variety of 4-day weeks throughout the year helps enable that, and also gives them some breaks from the grind. I know it's less convenient for some parents who have challenges arranging / paying for child care, but I think what's best for students should be the bigger consideration here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SOLs are complete in May (including retakes). We are in school till mid June.

Sure. I would be happy with an early August start and a beginning of June stop.
But also, consider some of the seniors who need to pass an SOL to graduate; they graduate at the beginning of June about 2 weeks before the end of school for everyone else.

How about we stop taking so many random days off during the school year. The reason we go so late and because of VA law for having 180 days. You all need to care that a good 14 of those days don't teach your kids anything. They're just there to satisfy this law.

But I (and many others) do not want a 3 month summer. Personally, I would prefer a fall break, a Thanksgiving break, a winter break, a spring break, and an 8 week summer.

I would prefer year round school with a 2 week break at the end of each quarter. I don't think the fall needs a fall break leading into a Thanksgiving break (I am assuming you mean more then the 2 days off right now) leading into winter break 5 weeks after Thanksgiving.

My ideal would be to build a calendar were you have 2 weeks off after the end of quarters and the second quarter ending at winter break. But most people seem to think that the idea of a shorter summer break in favor of a series of 2 weeks breaks is somehow threatening because they have to have a long summer break. (shrugs)

I think FCPS would be fine with the calendar if they choose either Federal Holidays off or Religious/Diversity days off but not both.

PP here. I agree... I would love a year round calendar with 2 week breaks between each quarter. I wish we could get more people on board with that kind of schedule.

[Anonymous]

OP, do you have a job?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a lot of whining on DCUM about the number of "random" days off during the year, and the argument goes that this throws off regular routines and is difficult for working parents. I do not prescribe to this viewpoint as I think that scattered days off are better than a longer Summer Break, but I thought that I would conduct a "what-if" exercise.

This is what the school year could look like if 5-day weeks were prioritized, while staying within VA and traditional holiday guidelines. The big changes are dropping the newer holidays and aligning a Fall Break and the traditional Spring Break with the end of the quarter teacher activities. Teacher Workdays and Staff Development days would be consolidated to the end of the quarters.


Quarter 1: 47 days. Schools starts Monday, August 28th. Days off include: Sept. 1st/4th (state-mandated Labor Day weekend), Oct. 9th (Indigenous).

Fall Break: Monday, Nov. 6th - Friday, Nov. 10th. Overlaps with Election and Veteran's Day.

Quarter 2: 45 days, starting Monday, Nov. 13th. Days off include: 3-day Thanksgiving break, Winter Break Thursday 12/21 to Tuesday 1/2, MLK day Monday, Jan. 15th.

Q2 Break: Thurs, Feb 2nd and Fri., Feb 3rd.

Quarter 3: 44 days, starting Mon., Feb 5th. Days off include: Mon., Feb 19th (President's)

End of Q3 and Spring Break: Mon. Apr 8th to Fri. Apr 12th (overlaps with Eid, but divorced from Easter)

Quarter 4: 44 days, starting Mon. Apr 15th. Days off include: Mon May 27th (Memorial)

End of School Year on Friday, June 14th.


The end result is 29 weeks with a full 5-day school week. That is versus 23 weeks in the current 22-23 school calendar. It doesn't really provide any advantage to eliminate Indigenous/Presidents since the quarter ends would be more difficult to maneuver around and create additional shorter weeks.

NOPE. TWO FULL WEEKS FOR WINTER BREAK OR NOTHING.
Drop the November break. People would rather have the full two weeks at Christmas rather than some random week at the beginning of November.

Also, none of this matters unless you name the 194-days that teachers have to work. Which days do teachers also have off and which days do they have to work?

I would rather have a random week off in November than two weeks at the end of December. We'd probably be ablt to fly somewhere on the cheap, which is impossible at the end of December.